Weekend Hot Topic, part 1: Desert island game discs

GameCentral readers decide what they’d do if they were left playing just one game while stranded on a desert island.

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gill C. It assumes things like power and a broadband connection are not a problem (which obviously makes no sense, but never mind), and asks you to pick your one and only game to play – potentially forever.

The choices split into two main groups: games with no end such as sports sims and MMOs and favourites that you’d be happy to play again and again. There was also a lot of talk of Dark Souls and the chance to catch up on your backlog…

Old and new

What a great idea for a Hot Topic, it’s tough to choose for me though. For recent games it would have to be Diablo III, I don’t remember ever coming back to a game so often as this one. It’s so good I’ve still not played several of the games that came out in 2015 that I intended to including Bloodborne. There’s a large selection of diverse characters to choose from and for me the compulsion of slaughtering goat men and undead hordes while getting new shiny weapons never gets old.

It’s helped that Blizzard keep offering new free downloads with new items, enemies and locations. Blizzard’s support for this game has been excellent and keeps it fresh.

For older games I would choose Streets Of Rage II. I know it’s only a scrolling beat ‘em-up but it’s just perfect, the pinnacle of this now neglected genre. At the moment I own four versions of this game, the original Mega Drive cartridge, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox 360, and an iOS version on my phone. If it ever comes out on the PlayStation 4 I’ll buy it again, I never tire of replaying it so if I was stuck on an island I can think of no better game.PE

Keep it in

My choice would have to be Bloodborne. I’ve put nearly 600 hours in to it now on several builds. A lot of that time has been spent co-oping with many GCers on the Facebook group. Particular mentions go to Wade Watts, Kyle Donnelly, Avant Aklu, and of course Gill C who suggested this Hot Topic.

I’ve bought a number of games in the past couple of months but I just can’t see them prizing Bloodborne out of my PlayStation 4. Long may it continue, well at least until April 12th.Ian Foard – Iax18 (gamertag)/Iax (PSN ID)
PS: Currently playing…

Virtual escape

If I was marooned on a desert island, I’d like to have Microsoft Flight Simulator and a joystick.

I used to play flight simulators years ago, typically military ones. Although I haven’t touched this type of game in ages I know they are highly demanding and you can actually learn piloting skills from the hardcore ones.

If I was limited to one game for possibly years I’d want an experience that exercised my brain, I’d want to play something that actually made me a more capable person.

And with a high end flight simulator I could virtually escape to anywhere in the world which would hopefully alleviate the despair of being stuck in one place.

I think if you were marooned with a conventional video game for an extended period of time you’d eventually see the limits of its creators’ imaginations.

Of course with a flight simulator there could be a danger of being perpetually reminded of how I came to be stuck on the island in the first place. But realistically I’d probably be marooned because I was shipwrecked.msv858 (Twitter)

Good practice

I’ve been reading for years, and been wanting to write in for a while, and this Hot Topic gave me the perfect reason, because for me the answer is a no-brainer. It’s got to be FIFA.

Since I’ve basically been playing the same game with incremental improvements for the last ten years anyway, it certainly passes my longevity test. And even better, if I’d been stranded on the desert island two years ago, I would have been playing a FIFA forever in which Liverpool were actually good!

Feel free to add me for FIFA/Halo 5.BestJonnyT (gamertag)

Laugh or cry

First, thank you GC for choosing my Hot Topic subject and thanks also for translating my clumsy ramblings into some sort of sense.

I must admit that, when I came to think about it, it was really hard to choose one game but in the end I decided to ditch my beloved Souls’ games and Bloodborne because I would be freaked out enough by my situation without Rom the Vacuous Spider tipping me over the edge.

So my choice is Borderlands 2 because it makes me laugh, because of the wacky characters and the even wackier guns (remember the talking gun anyone), because Handsome Jack is quite possibly my favourite bad guy and last but by no means least because of the four player co-op which is an absolute joy and which I didn’t play enough of (something I intend to rectify on my desert island) but was such fun with my GC Facebook friends even if they didn’t let me drive.Gill C.

Waiting for release

If I was stranded on a desert island GC, my game of choice would be… I don’t know, Skyrim? Not sure if an open world game would be the best idea in that big expanse of the ocean, could do things to your head.

Bloodborne? A bit smaller game world, but I near enough know it inside out now, hmm… Dark Souls III! Yeah, I know it’s not been released yet, but what I’ve seen of it, it would keep me distracted for hours and make me forget the starkness of my isolation and keep me ‘From’ going mad, ha ha!

If that doesn’t count then Skyrim: Legendary Edition would suffice and I’d probably end up a pile of bone’s on the beach, by the time I’ve finished it, so that’s my choice for my desert island disc…Avant Aklu
PS: Yes I known, I just contradicted myself there didn’t I? Oh well, thanks to the other famous GC (Gill Came) for an excellent Hot Topic!

Perfect choice

Great Hot Topic suggestion this week. It didn’t take me long to come to the conclusion that Civilization V would be my choice, as it seems to already have that replayability factor for me – I’ve put it nigh on 2,000 hours and yet I’m still searching for that perfect game.

By that I mean that in a 500 round game there’s many opportunities to make a wrong choice, like poor troop placement, starting a wonder that someone else beats you to or even just heading north instead of south with your starting warrior.

And I have never had the patience to go for a diplomatic victory so there’s that to aim for if I ever fancy a change of tactics. No two games are ever the same and that’s why it’s my nomination.StellarFlux (gamertag)

Endless mode

I would definitely pick Tetris for the desert island game.

Tetris to me is the perfect puzzle game and the perfect endless game.

As the 3DS Tetris is the one I have played more than any other incarnation It would have to be that version.

Also, with the rise of mundane simulators like IKEA Builder 2013 I guess Endless Blue might be a popular choice these days.McClane’sVest

Time to start

Desert Island Games, something that has definitely got potential limited only by the power of escapist imagination!

My own choice for this Topic interestingly enough would be a game that I have never played, which would be EVE Online which for those of you who are not aware is a massively multiplayer open world game set in outer space, with clear elements of science fiction such as in Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5.

The game structure will be familiar to any role-playing or similar type of game, where the player may choose the race/sex/appearance of their character and a chosen trade such as a soldier/engineer/explorer, and obtain a beginner’s spacecraft, equivalent to the villagers clothes and wooden sword, and progress from there.

I am assuming that I will be on this island for some time, as various Internet articles reveal a staggering amount of gameplay depth developed over the 10 years or so that the game has been running, so hopefully having made my shelter from palm leaves and collected sufficient coconuts without suffering too many tropical storms, I would be able to give the game the time it would so obviously need.

I would be interested to hear of any other reader experiences of actually playing the game, as my real world commitments to a certain extent, mean that I cannot always indulge in longer gaming sessions at specific times and/or co-ordinate with a larger group.

On occasions when I take a rest from the game, as well as enjoying the isolation I would be able to look up to a night sky clear of light pollution and wonder if there are any similar situations actually occurring out there in real-time.

Again and again

Hmm. Trapped alone on a desert island, forced to endlessly replay the same game while vainly hoping for rescue from my broadband-equipped isolation?

Well, it has to be the Stanley Parable, really, doesn’t it?Martin Smith

Games within games

A few games initially ran through my mind here and all with the common theme of variation in game modes or variation in playstyles. Halo 3, GTA: San Andreas, Dishonored, Football Manager, the original Deus Ex all came to mind. However, I kept coming back to the same game, and that is GTA V.

I will not bang on about how great a game it is because we know that already. But the fact that it is essentially two games in one with the single-player storyline and the separate GTA Online component would give hours of entertainment.

When you are bored of shooting you can just take part in some races. When you are bored of taking on (and in my case, losing to) human opponents then team up against the computer in a heist. Bored of co-operative play and play the single-player. And so on.

The soundtrack was good, not great, but that obviously helps as well.

It also has one of the more realistic game worlds created and so I can watch people go about their lives whilst I sit there taking a look across the ocean wondering when a boat might arrive. You are ultimately sending me a boat, right, GC? I feel I have held up my end of the bargain.NatorDom